This invention relates to apparatus for resisting reverse engineering a microelectronic device, and has particular relation to such apparatus which resists reverse engineering efforts employing chemical, X-ray, or neutron ray (N-ray) attack.
As competition increases between manufacturers of electronic devices, trade secret protection assumes growing importance. Each manufacturer must assure that the extremely valuable and extensive engineering effort needed to invent, research, and develop a new product is not reproduced, at a tiny fraction of its original cost, by a competing manufacturer who simply buys the product on the open market and copies it. Encapsulants which are adequate to protect the operation of the device against vibration, contamination, and other environmental threats have generally been insufficient to also protect the device from inspection and reverse engineering by competitors.